Sue Jane Taylor has spent over thirty years recording the lives of workers in the North Sea oil and gas industry. These pages are a selection of Sue Jane Taylor's work that were on display in the Age of Oil exhibition (21 Jul - 5 Nov 2017), at the National Museum of Scotland.

Our mission is to preserve, interpret and make accessible for all, the past and present of Scotland, other nations and cultures, and the natural world.

This Boulton & Watt engine was the first full-sized engine acquired for the collections and is one of the oldest surviving beam engines in the world.

On 3 December 1917, a little after 13:00, a large fireball was seen to cross southern Scotland. A short time later, an explosion was heard and four objects were seen or heard to crash to the ground around the towns of Coupar Angus and Blairgowrie in the Strathmore area of central Scotland.

Phosphorus, one of the elements in Apatite, is used to make chips and microprocessors in mobile phones.

Bismuth is used in the wires and connectors of mobile phones.

Barium, found in barite is used to make circuitboards in mobile phones.

Copper is used to make the wires and connectors in mobile phones.

Tungsten, found in the mineral wolframite, is used to make the speakers and microphones in mobile phones.

Gold is used to make connectors and wires in mobile phones.

Arsenic is used to make microprocessor and camera chips in mobile phones.

Manganese, found in manganite, can be used in mobile phone batteries.

Cobalt, found in the mineral cobaltoan spinel, is used in mobile phone batteries.

Silica, an element found in quartz, is used to make chips and microprocessors in mobile phones.

Wulfenite contains the element molybdenum, which can be used to make connectors and wires in mobile phones.

Lithium, one of the elements in spodumene, is used in mobile phone batteries.

Fluorine, found in the mineral fluorite, can be used in mobile phone cases.

Antimony can used to make mobile phone circuitboards.

Sphalerite can contain three elements used in mobile phones: zinc, indium and gallium.

Platinum can be used in mobile phone circuitboards.

Silver is used in mobile phone circuitboards.

Titanium, an element found in the mineral rutile, is used to make mobile phone cases.

Magnesium, an element found in dolomite, is used to make mobile phone cases.

Tin, found in cassiterite, is used in mobile phone circuitboards.

Aluminium, one of the elements in Diaspore, is used in mobile phone circuitboards.

Lead, found in galena, is used to make mobile phone circuitboards.

Diamond is a form of carbon, an element used to make electrodes in mobile phone batteries.

Nickel, found in the mineral nickeline is used in mobile phone batteries.

Boron is used to make microprocessor and camera chips in mobile phones.

Hydrogen, one of the elements in oil shale, is used in mobile phone cases.

Sodium and chlorine, both found in halite, can be used in mobile phone touchscreens and cases.

Sulphur is used to make mobile phone circuitboards.

Chromium, an element found in crocoite, is used to make mobile phone cases.

Iron can be used in the speakers and microphones of mobile phones.

Strontianite contains strontium, which is used in mobile phone circuitboards.

Zirconium, found in zircon, is used to make mobile phone circuitboards.

Greenockite contains cadmium, used to make mobile phone batteries.

Cinnabar contains the element mercury, which can be found in mobile phone circuitboards.

This unique water basin, shaped like a citadel, was made by Moroccan potters, probably as a diplomatic gift, in the 19th century.

This exhibition revealed an insight into the lives of children in the 18th and 19th centuries through a unique collection of Scottish samplers on loan from American collector Leslie B. Durst.

Book linked to the Hugh Miller Collection in National Museums Scotland wins this prestigious award

This targe, or shield, was presented to Prince Charles Edward Stuart before Culloden, but abandoned when the Prince fled the field.

After its invention in the 1620s, the microscope had its first high point in the second half of the 17th century.

This Persian leopard is a male that was born at Bristol Zoo in 1994. He eventually found a home at Wilhelma Zoo in Stuttgart, Germany where he died at the advanced age of 17 years old.

Early microscopes were sold by scientists and craftsmen, but by 1660 their production shifted to more commercial workshops.

This evening dress of bright leaf green and red shot silk is by the Maison Lucile Ltd, founded by Lady Duff Gordon, and is on display in our new galleries.

Two pieces of tusk in our collection show that some woolly mammoths made their home in Scotland, while another provides early evidence of mammoths in North America.

This vintage Avro Anson first flew in 1935, when it represented leading edge technology.

For almost 30 years, anyone who could afford the ticket could shoot across the globe at twice the speed of sound. How? By flying on Concorde, the world’s only supersonic passenger aeroplane.